Monday, October 12, 2009

Would you be more inclined to buy from a local company that you knew its employees all had their flu shots?

When I was a Vice President of a local security installation company I use to recommend to the owner that we either offer the employees one of several options; One, that we pay their co-pay for them to get their flu shot. Two, that we give them time during the day to go get their flu-shot on the "clock."  Three, that we just pay the $25.00 for the flu shot at the local drug store for the employee to get their flu shot.  

  Each time I would bring this up and get shot down, no pun intended.   My agrument was that we had an obligation  not only our employees and their families but also to our client's and their families.    Not to mention that we would have less down time due to sick days and loss of production that cost us much more than any of the three options.    Besides since I was Vice President I had seen the financials and knew we could afford it.  It was just good business.  

 It also seemed to be a good marketing tool that we could state that not only were we protecting your property but now we were protecting your health.   I never got the owner to give the green light to get the program off the ground. 

So, here is the question as a consumer would you be more likely to buy from a company that had all it's employees vacinated with the flu vacine?  Also, if you had a choice of buying from a local company or a national company and the local company had employees that were vacinated and the national company did not which one would you buy from?